My wife says MSU plays football like their solar car races. And, she was at the Formula Sun Grand Prix, at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and saw MSU's solar car in person. I lol'd loudly at her great analogy.

the same Isiah Lewis who, as Gordon said, "got trucked like a ho" on Montee Ball's first run from scrimmage game 1 of MooU - Wiscy in East Lansing.

second some idiot Sparty was on Sirius college sports radio tonight congratulating Wiscy but downing UM, remindig the host of Little Brother comment, sayig that Hart works at EMU cause that is the only job he can get and smacking Wal-Mart wolverines. Goes to show UM owns Sparty psychologically and next year on the field.

Teams that should fall below us: Houston, UGA, Oklahoma. That puts us at 13th or so. MSU can't move up by common voting precedence, so that means we should pass them and go to 12th. The only way we don't pass MSU is if Baylor passes both of us, MSU stays at 13 and Michigan goes to 14.

I think we are ranked in the 11-13 range tomorrow. What's good about this, though, is that it probably keeps MSU ahead of TCU, potentially leaving them out of the bowl if Georgia and Houston don't both fall past them. If OSU gets into the NCG, then that means that there are 3 true non-AQ picks in the BCS because Houston is no longer an AQ and Bama would eat the #3/#4 non-champ AQ, leaving Stanford as an at-large team. That opens up potential teams for us to play. Stanford, Baylor, KSU, BSU, VaTech, and WVU are all possibilities at this point.

I feel, with Michigan and Ohio State down, this was MSU's biggest chance to do something -- go to the ROSE BOWL, while we were down, and it didn't happen... Thing is, Ohio State won't be down for long, nor will Michigan. When will MSU play in the Big Ten Championship again ..... I am betting it'll be awhile.

how is that "down"? Except for losing to an MSU team that, per Brady, manhandled us, and to an Iowa team we should've at least had the chance to tie at the end of regulation, how were we down this season?

It's amazing how well they played tonight with no Sparty No!! moments. And then when they're in perfect position to come back with 2 minutes left, they pull the second biggest Sparty No!!!! moment of all time. (2006 Notre Dame still ranks first.)

I dunno man. This wasn't an epic collapse, no, but the big stage and bright lights have something to say too. I'm gonna have to say this trumps that one. Also partly because Dantonio was supposed to eliminate Sparty No moments and instead he indirectly created one.

I couldn't disagree more. This was in the conference title game and a shot at their first Rose Bowl in almost a quarter century. This was the best shot MSU had to get to Pasadena and it went up in couch flames because Sam the Eagle thought he'd get cute and call for the most unnecessary punt block in the history of Spartan Football.

No. This was by far the biggest Sparty No moment in their pitiful history.

That was incredibly hilarious...but the sweetest part of that interview was the subtly ironic part where he basically scoffed at the idea that the game hinged on Wisconsin's "throw it up and pray" 4th down play that led to the GW TD. Just delicious.

They did beat Michigan. If a BCS bid is to be determined by play on the field then MSU deserves a bid over Michigan. However, we adults understand that the BCS is a business and as a business they will take the option with the highest level of earning potential. UM is that option in this scenario.

got hammered by two teams that Michigan beat, one of those Neb, Michigan beat in convincing fashion. To me that makes the two teams pretty similar, in terms of deserving a spot. One head to head win does not represent the entirety of the two team's resumes.

I really don't care what this does to what bowl we land in - we'll get a good one, far better than in the last 3 years, and a really good chance to win, no matter what. I'm just so happy to see Sparty go down . . . due to stupid penalties no less. I grit my teeth and curse under breath watching MSU. Honestly, I hate OSU and ND (but generally respect them - okay, maybe not OSU so much) but I despise, revile, abhor MSU.

That was the mother of all Sparty No plays. You're going to get the ball back in decent field position with nearly two minutes and only needing a field goal to tie. You don't even THINK about rushing the punter on 4th and 3 in that situation. That may have been the single dumbest penalty I've ever seen any team take, and I vividly remember the 2001 MSU and 2006 OSU games.

Attempting to block that punt was almost as stupid as tsiO trying to block the punt against LSU in the 2008 MNC. The only difference was the LSU punter got leveled and the Badger punter kind of World Cup'd it. But still funny to see Sparty implode so close to grabbing the brass ring.

My favorite: "watching the replay...UW fans should thank the UW player who blocked/pushed Lewis a little bit.....Lewis would not have run into the punter if he had not been pushed."

God forbid an offensive lineman pushes a player who's trying to block a punt. The Wisconsin player wasn't even beat on that play, he shoved him to the outside, but Lewis's momentum carried him right into the punter. There's at least a 2 second delay from the block to the penalty.

What makes this even more priceless is they are bitching about the overrule following instant replay of Keyshawn Martin's catch, where he probably came down out of bounds and certainly bobbled and dropped the ball.

On the other hand, they supported the overrule following instant replay of Fitz's touchdown against Ohio.

I was literally just thinking today after Dantonio went for 2 in the first that the downfall of this team would be his cocky ass "no one can touch me" attitude when making play calls...I love that he got exactly what he deserved---not going to lie though, I feel bad for that poor kid.

in my mind I had written a nice post about how this team of sparties was different, how it was time to acknowledge that Dantonio can coach, and he has changed the attitude around the MSU program. How they weren't going away and would probably be our biggest challenger to future Division titles (still will be esp with their f'd up Big Ten schedule in 2013 and 2014).

Then this

I mean I'm really starting to believe we are back and MSU is back to being 'thats why your Michigan State'.

The difference between Sparty and Michigan is that Michigan fans can be unbiased when we need to. Sparty got jobbed by the refs tonight, on that bogus call. But, Sparty won the first meeting on pure luck, and Wisconsin won this one on something very similar. At first I thought Wisconsin didn't play well, then I realized Wisconsin really isn't very good, especially on defense. Sparty is good on D, no doubt, and looked great on O against a very bad Wisconsin D. Keshawn Martin is LEGIT, and I'm glad Cunningham is gone.

I don't want this Championship game at an indoor, pro venue. Something about roses indoors doesn't feel right.

Kid dove. Bigger problem is that they call it like they MUST.CALL.PENALTY. He wouldn't have gone down without diving. Those plays should draw an unsportsmanlike flag. Two flags cancel each other out and replay down.

They lose most of their passing attack, with Cousins, Cunningham, Martin, Nichol, and even Linthicum all moving on. They return all 3 backs and 4 of 5 starting OL, but the OL had some issues this year.

(Partly anticipated by Eve_of_the_rivalry above) was the fact that prior to this the announcers just couldn't shut up about the "riverboat gambler" D'Antonio. "Does that look like the face of a riverboat gambler?" blah blah. After he went for two. After he did the roll out and pass on fourth and short, etc. etc.

Well, there's a reason why more people aren't riverboat gamblers. Sometimes when you take chances it will blow up in your face. The two point conversion worked, the punt block failed in the way that punt block attempts often do. The cautious play would have been to trust his offence, which had been moving the ball and had scored a lot of points. Tell your special teams players not to go near the punter under any circumstances. He rolled the dice, and learned why riverboat gamblers so often end up broke.

That. Was. Hilarious. After Wisconsin spends 58.5 minutes shooting themselves in the foot with sloppy play and terrible defense, Sparty manages to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. The fact that there was any Spartan within 10 feet of the punter is a sure sign that Dantonio is an idiot. They didn't need a punt block, and the only focus of that play should have been getting the ball back into the hands of their offense that had moved the ball on Wisconsin all day long. Dantonio is a fucking arrogant prick, and got what he and his team deserved.

People complaining about it don't have a leg to stand on (HA!). Running into the kicker is a zero-tolerence penalty. You run into the kicker without touching the ball, it's a penalty. If you're lucky it's 5 instead of 15 but it's always something. Non-negotiable.

Thank God for that Sparty loss. I'm not sure I could have handled any more of Mark D smugly proclaiming that "times have changed." Not so fast, my friend. Looking forward to seeing Michigan back where they belong in years to come under Hoke.

Well, to be fair to Dantonio (not that he deserves it), the Wisky kicker put on an Oscar-winning performance. I agree the penalty had to be called, but the punter was not hit hard enough to go down in legit fashion.

and that the penalty is always going to be called. But if you think the punter was hit hard enough to legitimately fall down, you need to watch the replay a few more times. He purposely pulled up one leg as he spun around and then fell down like an 8-year old acting like he got shot while playing war out in the front yard. The penalty would have been called regardless, but his acting job was frosting on the cake. I hope a Michigan punter in the same situation would be able to do as well.

It should never have come to that—Sparty was an idiot going for the punt block in the first place. The most important thing was to just get the ball back; they were playing with fire by trying to block the punt, and they got burned. No sympathies from me.

Yeah, but I think it's pointless for Dantonio to complain about a flop when he probably coaches his own punter to do the same in the same situation. I'd think any good punter in the country would've done the same thing - heads up play to sell it to the refs.

Above all else, Sparty needed the ball back. Had they gotten it, there was plenty of time on the clock, and they'd been just killing Wisky on those quick passes to the outside WRs. All they needed was a field goal to send the game into OT.

That was the same lamebrain thing that cost us in the 2009 Purdue game; late in the game we needed the ball back; instead, GERG calls for the punt block, predictably we ran into their kicker, enabling PU to keep their drive alive and seal our doom.